"O Light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray That in Thy sunshine's glow its day May brighter, fairer be. "O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain That morn shall tearless be. "O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to hide from Thee; I lay in dust life's glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be." And with but a single change, the change of a word or two in one line, they stand as at first written. I suppose his biographer omitted the incident for the same reason that the first three Gospels may have omitted the incident of Lazarus while he was still living. So there was a sheltering from personal embarrassment. He came to his own and his own received him not. _He_--Jesus came to _His_ own and they that were His own received Him not. Aye, there's more to add: He _comes_ to His own--you and me--to-day. And His own-- You and I must finish that sentence, each in his own way. And we will; and we do. We may copy out in our lives just what these men of old did as told by John. Some of us do. We _may_ do some fine revision work on the text of John's version as we translate it now into the experience of our own hearts, and into the life of our own lives. That's the only way to understand the next sentence about being taken into the family of God and sharing the fullness of life that is common there. And this bit that is put down here is only a bit of copy work. _These things_ are talked and written only that we may be given a lift into closer touch of heart and life with the Christ, the Son of God, and the Brother and Saviour of men. II The Wooing Lover _Who it Was that Came_ "But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat--and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet-- _'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me'_" --"_The Hound of Heaven._" "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." --_Rev. iii. 20._ II The Wooing Lover (John i. 1-18.) In His Own Image. Love gives. It gives freely and without stint, yet always thoughtfully. It gives itself out, its very life. This is its life, to give its life. It lives most by giving most. So it comes into fullness of life. So it _gets_. A thing of life, in its own image, comes walking eagerly with outstretched arms to its embrace. It gives that it may get. Yet the giving is the greater. It brings most joy.